GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is throwing 70 passes a day while working his way back from a strained left calf.<\/p>\n
Coach Billy Napier said Monday that Lagway is \u201con schedule\u201d with his rehab but will remain \u201cmodifed for a while\u201d in practice. The sophomore who went 6-1 in seven starts last season sat out Saturday\u2019s scrimmage and has yet to take part in 11-on-11 team drills.<\/p>\n
The 15th-ranked Gators open the season Aug. 30 against Long Island University.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis workload is high,\u201d Napier said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not with a pass rush, you know? We\u2019re controlling the environment, trying to take care of him from a soft-tissue standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lagway strained a calf muscle while running with teammates a week before the Gators opened training camp. It was the latest injury for the Heisman Trophy hopeful who missed spring practice with a shoulder injury after undergoing sports hernia surgery.<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s star player also was limited last fall with shoulder soreness and slowed in November because of a strained left hamstring.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny football player would be better off taking the reps,\u201d Napier said. \u201cThe key is to be creative in terms of how we format practice, format the walkthrough. We\u2019ve got to maximize all the mental reps, the process reps, the communication reps.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Florida head coach Billy Napier looks on from the sideline against Georgia during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Georgia, Nov. 2, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla. Credit: AP\/Phelan M. Ebenhack<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not ideal. That\u2019s the way I\u2019ve tried put it in the past, and I still kind of stand by that. In a perfect world, he\u2019d be 100% and taking every single rep. But he\u2019s not able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The silver lining: Lagway\u2019s absence has allowed the Gators to get a better look at three QBs vying for the backup job. And freshman Tramell Jones Jr. has been so impressive that he\u2019s now pushing returner Aidan Warner and college journeyman Harrison Bailey for the spot behind Lagway.<\/p>\n
Napier called Jones\u2019 performance \u201cbuzz worthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still got to operate much quicker, got to process quicker, communicate better under the gun and the play clock, his ability to manage the problems as they arise. All those things need to improve,\u201d Napier said. \u201cBut he throws a really good ball. He\u2019s very accurate. He\u2019s got arm talent, and I think he\u2019s a smart kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lagway completed 60% of his passes for 1,915 yards, with 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 2024. He took over the starting role after Graham Mertz tore a knee ligament at Tennessee in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is throwing 70 passes a day while working his way back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1976,1607,399,398,396,397,99,9815],"class_list":{"0":"post-75589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}